Jacquard loom
Loom incorporating a special device to control individual warp yarns. It enabled production of fabrics with intricate woven patterns such as tapestry, brocade, and damask, and has also been adapted to the production of patterned knitted fabrics. Developed in France by J.-M. Jacquard in 1804–05, it used interchangeable punched cards that controlled the weaving of the cloth so that any desired pattern could be obtained automatically. It aroused bitter hostility among weavers, who feared that its labour-saving capabilities would deprive them of jobs; the weavers of Lyon not only burned the machines but attacked Jacquard as well. Eventually the loom's advantages led to its general acceptance, and by 1812 there were 11,000 in use in France. Use of the loom spread to England in the 1820s and from there virtually worldwide.
Although punch cards were used in earlier looms and music boxes, Jacquard's loom was a vast improvement and allowed complex patterns to be created swiftly. The loom was inspiration to Charles Babbage and, later, to Herman Hollerith who developed the first commercial punch card equipment.
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| The Jacquard Loom |
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| The binary principle embodied in the punched-card operation of the loom was inspiration for the data processing machines to come. (Image courtesy of The Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org) |
| (history) | Jacquard loom - /zhah-kar'/ A mechanical loom, invented by
Joseph-Marie Jacquard in 1801, which used the holes punched
in pasteboard punch cards (which see) to control the weaving
of patterns in fabric. It was the first machine to use punch
cards, although it did no computation based on them. http://history.rochester.edu/steam/hollerith/loom.htm. |
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